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Former Muhlenberg swimming pool source of many memories

As a child, Janis Henry McGowan eagerly awaited opening day at the Muhlenberg Swimming Association.

McGowan, 62, grew up in Muhlenberg Township, just blocks from the community pool on Darby Avenue.

Her family held a membership in the swimming club, and her father, Herbert F. Henry, served on its board of directors.

“I grew up at the pool. Literally,” she said. “As soon as I was old enough to go on my own, I was down there all day.”

On opening day — the Saturday before Memorial Day— she would sit outside waiting for the noon opening, eager to be the first to plunge into the pool. From then until the pool’s Labor Day closing, McGowan, now of West Brunswick Township, Schuylkill County, spent nearly every day in the water.

She would ride her bicycle to morning swim team practice, come home for lunch, then pedal back to the pool for the noon opening. She would stay until 5 o’clock, go back home for supper, then return to the pool until its 9 p.m. closing time.

As a teenager, McGowan got her first job experience working in the pool’s snack bar and as a lifeguard. When she wasn’t on duty, she was swimming or socializing poolside with friends.

“That was my summer,” she said. “What a sad thing that it’s no longer a part of a kid’s life.”

Going under

Plans call for the pool’s demolition later this year.

The Muhlenberg Swimming Association failed to open after the 2015 season.Photo by Bill Uhrich 3/22/2016
The Muhlenberg Swimming Association failed to open after the 2015 season. (Bill Uhrich – Reading Eagle)

Muhlenberg Township bought the property in 2022 as a means of controlling development on the site, said Jim Bobeck, township manager.

“The commissioners had no intention of keeping the pool open,” he said. “They made it very clear.”

Shuttered after the 2015 season, the private swim club reopened as a public pool under new ownership in 2018. When that venture failed, the commissioners jumped on the chance to buy the property, Bobeck said.

Muhlenberg pool has new owners, who say they want to save it

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The 94-year-old pool developed leaks, making it difficult to keep filled, he said, and its aging filtration and pumping system were insufficient.

“To some degree, it is unfortunate,” Bobeck said. “But the reality is pools of that age are just deteriorating, and there is only so much upkeep that can be done without completely renovating and tearing out the pool.”

The history

Built by William Sharp, developer of the South Temple section of the township, the facility opened as a public pool and park on June 29, 1929, according to an article in that day’s Reading Times. The summer resort originally included an 18-hole miniature golf course and campground, just off Route 222, about 4 miles north of downtown Reading.

The South Temple Pool, later known as the Muhlenberg Swimming Association, opened June 29, 1929. The pool is slated for demolition later this year.(Courtesy of Muhlenberg Township)
The South Temple Pool, later known as the Muhlenberg Swimming Association, opened June 29, 1929. Notice the pool’s sand beaches made with six railroad-car loads of sand from New Jersey. The pool is slated for demolition this year.(Courtesy of Muhlenberg Township)

After Sharp died in 1933, his son Raymond Sharp and daughter Florence Kirkpatrick continued the pool’s operations as part of the South Temple Realty Corp. until 1957, when it was sold to the swimming association.

Lyndell C. Shipe of Muhlenberg Township remembers how her father, Raymond Rentschler, and some others in the South Temple development formed the swimming association.

“They (the realty company) put the pool up for sale, and the community wanted to buy it,” she said.

Rentschler and other organizers went door to door selling shares in the association to raise the needed funds. When they fell short of the purchase price, she said, her father and a few others put up the money for multiple shares.

Originally known as the South Temple Pool and Park, the recreation facility north of Reading included a miniature golf course and campground.(Courtesy of Muhlenberg Township)
Originally known as the South Temple Pool and Park, the recreation facility north of Reading included a miniature golf course and campground. (Courtesy of Muhlenberg Township)

Shipe, 75, recalled performing as a synchronized swimmer in the end-of-summer water shows that packed the wooden bleachers in the 1960s.

The shows featured elegant water ballets, daring dives from a 30-foot platform and plenty of clowning around.

Spectators held their breaths as Wesley Goss, Bruce Wentzel or one of the other daredevils performed the most anticipated stunt: the human-torch. Wearing a special suit, Goss, now 75, would light himself on fire before plunging from the high dive into the water.

“There is a film of him fire-diving somewhere,” his wife, Linda, said.

Family time

The couple live in South Temple within walking distance of the pool, and like many area families, they made many memories there.

“We had four generations of MSA swimmers,” she said.

People swim in the pool during Muhlenberg's National Night Out at Muhlenberg Swimming Association. Photo by Natalie Kolb 8/4/2015
People swim during Muhlenberg’s National Night Out at Muhlenberg Swimming Association in 2015. The high slide was a favorite for generations of children. (READING EAGLE)

Multigenerational membership in the swimming association was not unusual, Shipe said.

She and her late husband, Robert Shipe III, served on the board, and introduced their daughter, Wendy Cooper, to the water at a young age.

By the time she was 8, Cooper was winning medals as a member of the swim team. She, too, went on to work at the pool in the snack bar and as a lifeguard.

“The pool’s closing has been devastating for us,” said Cooper, whose son Cameron Shipe, 16, also is a competitive swimmer.

Cooper, now of Laureldale, remembers the many swim team sleepovers held in the club’s recreation center.

“We were a tight-knit group,” she said. “We did everything together.”

She recently organized a reunion of former team members, lifeguards and club members, who met on the site.

Wendy Cooper, LeeAnn Livinghouse, Rusty Kemp and Dee Stull recently attended a reunion of former swim team and other pool members. (Courtesy of Wendy Cooper)
Wendy Cooper, LeeAnn Livinghouse, Rusty Kemp and Dee Stull recently attended a reunion of former swim team and other pool members. (Courtesy of Wendy Cooper)

LeeAnn Livinghouse and her mother, Judy Livinghouse, were among those joining the group for a last look.

LeeAnn and her sister Jaime Eckhart spent nearly every summer day of their childhoods at the pool with their mother.

For the sisters, the pool triggers poignant memories of their older half-brother Scott Livinghouse.

A Muhlenberg High School graduate, Scott died in 1987 at age 19 of injuries suffered in a three-car crash on Interstate 81 in Dauphin County.

“Scott was always at the pool,” LeeAnn Livinghouse said. “He would do these crazy flips off the high dive.”

The South Temple Pool high dive is visible in this 1935 Reading Times ad for the pool.
The South Temple Pool high dive is visible in this 1935 Reading Times ad for the pool.

She remembers how her mother would shudder as Scott splashed down into the water just a foot or so from the island.

A unique feature, the concrete island stood on the line between the diving well and the racing lanes. Making it there from the pool’s edge was the goal of every novice swimmer.

Livinghouse, 44, of Reading and Eckhart, 46, of Baltimore share almost identical memories of their brother standing on the island and encouraging them to swim to him, and later, to take their first jumps off the 10-foot-high springboard.

“When I finally did it,” Livinghouse said, “Scott got everybody to cheer and clap for me. It was the best moment.”

Past members of the Muhlenberg Swimming Association gather Saturday to reminisce and to view the remains of the pool before it is demolished. Merle Wentzel's husband, Bruce, was one of the fire divers at the pool in the 1960s. (BILL UHRICH - READING EAGLE)
Merle Wentzel’s husband, Bruce, was one of the fire divers at the pool in the 1960s. (BILL UHRICH – READING EAGLE)

Exorbitant liability insurance premiums and the fear of costly damages in the case of an accident spelled the end of the high dive, Shipe said.

Insurance premiums coupled with other growing costs and declining membership factored into the club’s eventual closing, she noted.

In the end, there were only 30 or so family memberships, a far cry from the hundreds when McGowan helped her father distribute the cards. More than 750 families belonged to the club then, she said, and there were about as many on the list waiting to buy shares.

“It’s a different world,” she said.

The former South Temple Pool, later known as the Muhlenberg Swimming Association, as it appeared in the 1930s. The pool is slated for demolition later this year.(Collection of Michelle Lynch)
The former South Temple Pool, later known as the Muhlenberg Swimming Association, as it appeared in the 1930s. The pool is slated for demolition later this year. (Collection of Michelle Lynch)


Source: Berkshire mont

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